For the Few Not the Many - Anonymous employee FCDO Services Employee Review

Victim of the 1% Civil Service pay cap that essentially equates to a pay cut year on year after inflation. The pay band ranges stated on job adverts for FCO Services are almost non existent, if you join you will be sat at the bottom of the pay band unless you get a promotion. This leads to experienced staff being paid the same as newly qualified apprentices, only to then watch them rising through the ranks at an alarming pace. The only other way to get a raise is to threaten departure and hope that your manager is open to negotiation. There is opportunity to earn overtime on overseas trips but at the detriment to your home and family life. Overseas hours are long, with a regular working week being ten hours a day, six days a week for periods of anything up to six months. It's hard to see those places you never thought you'd visit on your one day off after working a sixty to seventy hour week. The workload can see travelling staff spending as little as a few days in the UK between trips, this can have a negative impact on your family and home life. Contract staff are paid way over what regular staff are, generally for doing the same job. Contractors on temporary contracts are kept on seemingly forever without being transferred to direct employment. Typical top heavy Civil Service organisation with more middle and senior managers than necessary. This leads to a disjointed approach to management of the various areas of the business and poor communication between them. A Civil Service entity that plays at being a number of other things, including a construction company. The phrase "chimps tea party" springs to mind, with the same mistakes repeated again and again with little to no hope of ever changing policy and procedure. The effect of this is a workforce low on morale, brow-beaten and tired with the company and management. On an overseas installation you will be the face of FCO Services to the customer when the usual problems arise. You will be expected to deal with issues caused by the inadequacies and pig-headedness of other parts of the organisation for minimal recognition. You will also be expected to manage staff at higher grades than you, as well as contractors for no extra pay.